Top 5 Mistakes Made in Starting a Comics Career

Hey,

I've been thinking lately and I guess I can't deny it to myself any longer: I am lazy. My problems with not getting enough of the comic done aren't that I don't have enough time, but simply because I am lazy. I am just lazy. Sure, I have to make time for important relationships, work, responsibilities, but past that ... I am just lazy. So no more whining from me from now on. I will continue asking for fan art of my comic and commissions though, but... I am just lazy. So I think I might do the comic in black and white to help put it out there faster (non-colored shows up better printed in black and white for newspapers anyway - oh, thinking of submitting to my college paper since my brother was one of their last comic strip artists). Here's something from Zuda Comics (yeah, I thought they were closed too) that helped push me to admit what I already knew:


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zuda.blog.dccomics.com/2010/09…
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Top 5 Mistakes Made in Starting a Comics Career

Friday, September 17th, 2010

By Kwanza Johnson

Here are five simple ways to stall your comics career;

1. COLD CALLING
Do not cold contact editors. Do not email them gigantic art files they did not ask you for. There is a difference between being proactive and annoying. Do a little research on how to promote yourself to the right people. Such knowledge is on the InterWebs.

2. NOT MAKING COMICS
No one will give you an assignment unless you’ve shown that you that you can actually make comics — regularly. Even if you are mindbogglingly talented, there are others who are less so, but have shown that they can do the work.

3. TAKING REJECTION POORLY
I am not the best editor in the world (I think I am but it is not true… Ow. That hurt just to type.) and you are not the best artist in the world. Everyone gets rejected, all the time. Don’t make an issue of being critiqued, just absorb the information and put out better work.

4. NOT WORKING WITH OTHERS
Comics are a collaborative effort, period. There are few who can do it all themselves and even they need to work with others in some capacity. There is no “I” in team, blah, blah blah. It is better for publishers to know that you have established good work relationships.

5. NO SCHOOLING
Talent is natural, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn the fundamentals of writing or illustration. You should study the rules before trying to break them with your “style.” Go to college/art school, intern, become an apprentice to someone in the business. It will help.

That is it. Pretty quick and dirty but something to mull over as you make your way in this crazy business.



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Other useful info:

1. How to get a job with a comics book publisher: www.ehow.com/how_2124163_get-j…

2. Advice on Comics Job Hunting: comicsworthreading.com/2007/02…

3. The Tao of Breaking into Comics *by CB Cebulski*: robot6.comicbookresources.com/…